Episode 11 of Solo Leveling produced some of the most engaging art and animation I’ve seen in modern shonen anime. I am not exaggerating when I say I felt chills at points. What made this episode fantastic wasn’t any specific moment of animation quality, or solely the kinds of sakuga moments that get posted about every day on some Twitter fan account.
Solo Leveling, through the direction and orchestration of episode 11, practically forces your attention. I felt myself drawn to the screen and didn’t once think of looking away; it was just that great. Movement, art style, incredible perspective shifts, and a pace that alternated fast-paced scenes with expository ones all came together far better than I expected.
This is one of the most important episodes in terms of the Solo Leveling story. The job change quest, as its name and description implies, is a chance for Jinwoo to gain access to powerful new abilities in the same way a video game character would when choosing a class. Anything less than amazing wouldn’t do, so A-1 Pictures and Taito Ban delivered.
I genuinely think this is some of A-1’s best work, and in a lot of ways I can see the best of even their non-shonen works in this episode. It was a bit slow to start, but impossible to pull away from once the action picked up. (Spoilers ahead for Solo Leveling episode 11: A Knight Who Defends an Empty Throne).
The earliest parts of the episode actually worried me a bit. From the moment Jinwoo enters the dungeon for his job change quest, we start with the gate opening, something that was animated beautifully. Studio Trigger style sparks of light, and even bits of art (I swear the lightning says “crisp” at 1:04) hidden within the impact frames of the lightning bursting from the gate’s black hole style opening made the first minute of the episode into a statement.
To me, this beginning sequence was like a calling card of sorts. This is the animation staff making it quite clear to the audience that all of their efforts are coming out for this episode and that you better prepare to pay close attention. Immediately following this, however, the first enemy we see Jinwoo fight is animated using CGI.
This isn’t a problem in a vacuum, but the shift from a flashy sequence to a computer generated one was a bit jarring. As I progressed through the episode however, I began to think and realize this was probably an instance of resource allocation: putting time into the main fights as opposed to the jobber first enemy at the beginning of the dungeon.
Even then, the early fights featured a lot of elements that I’ve said were missing from previous fights in Solo Leveling. These are things like minimal cuts when cuts aren’t needed, actually showing a character’s body moving when they move at high speeds relative to other characters, and giving each impact from blades or blows time to resonate on screen. Just as Jinwoo was essentially battling the offensive and defensive traits of his prior opponents, I felt like this opening sequence took the opportunity to show off all of the art and animation work that has been executed so far in Solo Leveling, from skills to quick movement to hand to hand combat.
Additionally, the expository sections featuring Jinho with his family and the S-rank Hunters preparing to raid Jeju Island were well paced and well spaced. I never felt as though they took too much time and it let the action that occurred seconds prior digest while providing some useful information about what’s happening elsewhere.
Now then, for the main fight. The entire rest of the episode could have been trash and this fight still would have made it incredible. Like prior boss / major fights, the beginning of this one made ample use of alternating normal and slow motion sequences in order to emphasize the difference in speed between two people. In this case though, it was Jinwoo being briefly overwhelmed by an opponent he expected to be much slower.
Immediately following that was an unexpected perspective shift that gave us Jinwoo’s point of view as he was launched through the air, twisting and turning in every direction while the wind whistles in both his ears and ours. This is part of what I was getting at when I mentioned A-1’s non-shonen works; environmental sound and atmosphere setting is incredibly important in anime without action, but this episode of Solo Leveling had top tiers of that as well. Just the beginning was incredibly immersive, and this was the moment I felt my mind lock in and stop my eyes from blinking.
This is by far the hardest we’ve seen Jinwoo struggle, and that also means its the most effort we’ve seen him have to put into searching for an opening against an opponent. This gave the animators a chance to show their ability to craft smooth, consistent action from both a massive sword and Jinwoo’s quicker dagger movements.
The hand-to-hand section, fantastic in its own right, was an entirely new style and one that I appreciated. The hand-to-hand combat felt reminiscent of the battle between Yuji and Choso in Jujutsu Kaisen at points, even down to Igris making use of a beautifully drawn Manji kick against Jinwoo.
The music, sound, screams from Igris, and scream in response from Jinwoo complemented the visuals perfectly. Hiroyuki Sawano did an incredible job with this score and captured the mood for every segment of the episode, every crescendo, every diminuendo. I’ve never found myself enjoying a main character getting his ass beat quite like I enjoyed watching this, even from a solely artistic perspective.
The final blows, in typical Jinwoo eye-stabbing style, were also done well (everything about this fight was done well, let’s just put it that way) even if, as Jinwoo himself notes, the win was somewhat of a fluke. If Taito Ban recovered from coughing up blood he damn sure is back to coughing after this performance.
I felt chills from his final screams and couldn’t imagine anything but him truly being Jinwoo and desperately taking advantage of the single opening he had in front of him. The final moments of the episode tell us there’s much more to come and Jinwoo is about to get a Dark Souls experience with another phase to this boss fight. If the penultimate episode was this amazing, I can’t imagine what the finale is about to be like. I need it to be next week, today.
If you don’t vote for Solo Leveling episode 11 in our weekly poll then you’re lying to yourself.
© Solo Leveling Animation Partners